Susan (Hain) Shideler

SHIDELER

Posted By: Cyndi Vertrees (email)
Date: 11/6/2011 at 09:12:19

Susan Hain Shideler

Lake City Graphic
Lake City Iowa
April 25, 1889

Note-By urgent request of many people who want copies of the Graphic to send abroad, we reproduce the article from the JOURNAL detailing the Shideler accident. From the Manson Journal.

FATAL ACCIDENT!

Mrs. Robt. Shideler Burned to Death and her husband seriously injured – a singular and heartrending accident, caused by a spark from a pipe.

Last Friday forenoon Uncle Robt. Shideler and his good wife started for Manson to market, as they had done numerous times before, little thinking of the terrible accident soon to befall them. Uncle Robt. Lit his pipe before starting. Soon after passing Geo. Zell’s place, on the long grate south of his house, he knocked the ashes out of his pipe on the wagon stake, where the fire would fall in the road. The team had not gone ten rods before the hay in the bottom of the box was discovered to be on fire, as was also Mrs. Shideler’s clothing. The horses were stopped and Mrs. Shideler jumped from the wagon, her husband following her with two blankets, which he at once wrapped around her and endeavored to smother out the flames, but the blankets burned like tinder and his wife was suffering so from the burns she could not remain still. Finding the blankets of no use he took off his overcoat and succeeded with it in nearly subduing the flames, but in her struggles she had got off the grade and into the long slough grass by the side of the road, which soon ignited and both husband and wife were, in a moment, wrapped in a sheet of flames from the surrounding grass. Joe Moore, who happened along the road afoot, was, the first to discover the trouble and arrived in time to see Mrs. Shideler in the throes of death and Uncle Robert, half crazed from the terrible struggle he had gone through, the sight of his dying wife, and hands burned to the bone, in the terrible struggle with the flames. Gus Zell and wife arrived soon after, and other neighbors followed. Nothing could be done except to care for the dead and take Uncle Robert to medical assistance. He was brought to town and placed in the care of Mr. Martin, who set about at once to dress his wounds and to alleviate the pain by opiates. He could check the pain of body, but not the terrible heartrending mental suffering endured by the patient, over the loss of his wife, and for which he blamed himself wholly. It is one of those accidents of life that cannot be accounted for. One look at Uncle Robert’s hands is proof of the life struggle made to save her, and, if laying down his own life would have sufficed, how quickly would he have done it. Uncle Robert may blame himself, but there is not another living soul who is cruel enough to make such a charge. Mrs. Shideler, after falling from the grade, no doubt breathed the fire into her lungs, and this is what caused her sudden death. The whole time of the accident from the beginning of the fire to her death, could not have been over ten minutes.

The body was taken to Lake City, Saturday and interred by the side of two of her children. The funeral services will not be held till later.

Susan Hain was born in Miami county, Ohio, March 25, 1825, and was at the time of her death, 64 years and 11 days old. She was married to Robert Shideler, October 7, 1845. April 2d, 1862, she moved to Lake City, Calhoun county, Iowa, with her husband and family. About twenty years ago they moved upon the prairie where they have resided since. Nine children blessed this happy union, seven of whom are still living. The daughters are Mrs. Rosina Smith, living in Chicago; Levina Sherman, at Lake City; Victoria Fish, Glendive, Montana; Mary the youngest daughter is at home. George and David Shideler are living in Lake city, McClellan and Chester are in Colorado, Moses, the youngest son is at home. Sabrina and Nancy died in infancy. Mrs. Shideler was a God fearing women and brought up her family under the influence of the sacred altar. For fifty years she and her husband had been members of the Christian church, and lived up to its teachings in their every day life and though her taking off was sudden she was prepared in heart years ago. No family in the county was more widely known or more universally loved and respected than they, and the loss will be deeply and sincerely mourned by the entire community.

The mind cannot express, nor the pen portray the terrible suffering of mind and body that Uncle Robert endures. The horrors of that life struggle, and the picture of the body of his cherished and prostrate wife is always before him. A hundred deaths in their most horrible form have been suffered by him since the accident. Even though 70 years of age, he has a strong and robust body and mind, and this alone may pull him through the terrible ordeal that must have killed a more delicate person. The deepest sympathy is expressed for the family and the stricken husband, and everything that human aid can do is being done to comfort him, and relieve him as much as possible from the terrible strain. No man in the county is more highly respected and loved than Uncle Robert. He is a Mason of fifty years standing and practices its principles to the letter,. He is one of the oldest Masons in the state and was one of the early founders of that society in this county. We doubt if there is a member of that society in the county who would not go to the end of his cable tow to assist him. Kind neighbors and brethren will see that his every wish is cared for. The daughter from Chicago arrived Sunday and the two sons from Colorado Monday evening.